Lavisse : Louis XI V. 131 The difficulty attending the writing of a history of the reign of Louis XIV. is very great. The magnitude of the poHtics of that time, the long length of the reign and the vast mass of material to be con- sulted, are three considerations. But independent of these circumstances, which laborious study may overcome, there is an added difficulty. For, in spite of the enormous mass of literature upon the subject, there is a paucity of essential material for an adequate study of it. At first blush, this statement may seem an exaggeration. Nevertheless it is true. W'e know much more of the history of the French Revolution or the Napoleonic era — though there are great gaps here — than we know or can know, for a long time to come, of the period of Louis XIV. Thanks to M. Clement's monumental publication of the correspondence of Col- bert, supplemented by the work of other scholars, like Depping and Boislisle, the administrative history of Louis XIV. in its larger aspects is known, although, M. Lavisse says, "It is impossible to actually give a precise idea of the transformations which have taken place in the government [of France] since the sixteenth century. They are com- plicated and confused; they have been made by measures of detail which have not been codified." He adds with a tinge of regret : " This chapter can give nothing but an appreciation of what the government was in general appearance." We know much about the character of cultivated and court society in France during the reign of the Grand Monarque; but on the other hand, we know more of the structure of medieval society, of Roman society, of ancient Egyptian society, than of lower and middle-class society in France in the seventeenth century (p. 323, note). When we turn to the history of the foreign politics of Louis XIV. 's reign, there is a much greater amount of published material. Yet even here, except in the case of the Recueil des Instructions aiix Ambas- sadciirs, the investigator has to be guided largely by authorities instead of sources. He may consult Mignet and Legrelle for Spanish affairs; Lefebvre-Pontalis and Lonchay for the Netherlands, Auerbach for Ger- many, Goedecke for Austria; Reuss for Alsace; Carutti for Savoy; the recent books of MM. Waddington and Pages upon the Great Elector, and M. Camille Rousset's Louvois, and Klopp"s Fall des Hauses Stuart, a monumental political history of Europe from 1660 to 1714 in fourteen volumes, throughout. But the direct correspondence of Louis XIV. 's diplomatic agents, — Barillon, Lyonne, Colbert de Croissy, Vrilliere, Chateau-Neuf, Louis de Crecy, Harlay Bonneiiil, Callieres and others, still lies unpublished in the Archives des Affaires fitrangeres. Prussia is ahead of France in this particular in having the Actenstiickc cur Gcschichtc des Kiirfiirsten Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg (Berlin, 1864 ), which Professor Philippson used to such advantage. Ranke and Fox made large use of Barillon's correspondence and printed selec- tions from it, but the body of it is yet unpublished. It is on the side of English affairs, however, that there is the greatest
